Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) products may operate at various frequencies, such as 2.4 gigahertz (GHz) or 5 GHz. Those operating at 5 GHz must share the band with government/military radar systems, and may therefore interfere with those radar systems. Because reliable operation of the radar is considered a higher priority use than the consumer or commercial use of WLAN, WLAN systems may be required to monitor for radar signals. When a radar signal is detected that is above a certain strength, the WLAN system may be required to switch to a non-interfering frequency.
In conventional systems the base station, or access point (AP), may be responsible for monitoring for radar signals, and may further be required to redirect all communications to a new frequency within a defined time when a radar signal is detected. However, because the AP generally handles all communications within the WLAN, when the WLAN is in a heavy traffic condition the overworked AP may have to choose between monitoring for radar signals and keeping the flow of communications going. The choice that is made may affect whether network performance suffers, or the AP misses a radar signal and possibly interferes with the radar.